


a walk to remember

by helsinkibaby



Category: NCIS
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Mistaken Identity, Pre Relationship, Romance, Spoilers, What child is this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-09-15 23:01:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16942368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: Nick and Ellie get mistaken for someone else.





	a walk to remember

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the TVLine exclusive spoiler pic from “What Child is This” ... I’m generally quite suspicious of spoiler pics (stargate sg1, season seven, Sam/Daniel and that’s all I’m saying #stillannoyed) but fingers crossed!

Nick slowed down his steps to match Ellie’s, keeping his eyes partly on their surroundings - they were on protective custody detail after all - and partly on the baby in the stroller. Maybe a nighttime stroll hadn’t been the greatest idea - a screaming baby made it pretty much impossible to fly under the radar - but it had been either that or have Gibbs emerge from the basement in a bad mood, so a walk it had been. 

Thankfully, the minute the little guy had hit the night air, his wails had quietened and, after less than five minutes of walking, Nick had been ready to announce mission accomplished. Ellie had insisted they walk a little longer, just in case. She was probably right. She usually was. 

“I think he’s out,” she said as she stopped walking altogether. Carefully, barely breathing, she leaned in and gently pulled at the blanket that was up close around the baby’s face. Her whole body relaxed at what she saw, face lighting up with a smile and Nick moved closer too, wanting to see for himself. Bracing his hands on the handle of the stroller, he felt himself grinning too. The kid’s lips were pursed in the most adorable pout - and yeah, Nick Torres didn’t usually do kids but there was no other word for that expression - and his eyes were tightly shut, his chest rising and falling rapidly. 

“Looks like you were right.” Nick admitted it grudgingly but when Ellie’s smile brightened and she looked up at him, the grudge vanished instantly. 

“Maybe,” Ellie acknowledged. “But I’m not looking forward to trying to take him out of this and put him in the crib.” 

Nick had a sudden memory of learning how to disarm a bomb when undercover, found himself strangely nostalgic about it. Just as he was about to point out to Ellie that she could have that honour, this walk being her idea and all, he heard footsteps coming close to them and his hand went behind his back, ready to reach for his sidearm. Ellie’s hand on his arm stopped him, luckily, as a black Labrador bounded into view, coming over to stand beside them and look into the stroller at the sleeping baby. Nick felt his eyebrows rise and Ellie laughed in sheer shock because it almost looked as if the dog were smiling at the child. Nick reached down to scratch behind its ears and just then they heard a woman’s voice calling, “Sally! Get back here!” 

The dog actually whined and there was nothing shocked about Ellie’s laughter as the dog’s owner appeared, her jaw dropping when she saw them standing there. A woman who looked to be in her late forties, quite possibly early fifties, she hurried over to them. “I’m so sorry, I let her out for her evening constitutional and she usually stays in the garden... I guess she scented this little one and forgot herself, she does love babies...” And in a true case of dogs acting like their owners, or vice versa, she craned her neck to catch a glimpse inside the stroller. When she did, she smiled softly. “Oh, look at him...” She glanced up at Nick and Ellie, but only for a second. “Home to spend the first Christmas with Grandpa.” Nick’s jaw dropped at the woman’s assumption and, from the corner of his eye, he could see that Ellie’s did too. Not that the woman noticed, she only had eyes for the baby. “I saw you pulling up with your dad earlier-” She was addressing Ellie then, who did an admirable job of pulling herself together. “-Just goes to show how observant I am, I’m here two years now and never knew he had a daughter.” Just then, Sally whined again, butted her owner’s knee with her nose. “Oh, so now you want to go in?” She rubbed Sally’s ears fondly. “All right then. Merry Christmas, you two... enjoy every minute with him.” 

With another find look at the baby, she was gone, leaving Nick and Ellie staring first after her, then at each other. 

“Wow.” Nick was the first to speak. “Did she even breathe between sentences?” 

Ellie shook her head, then tucked a strand of hair behind her ears. It was a gesture Nick recognised, something she did when she was feeling unsettled. “We’re going to have to tell Gibbs about that.” Which would certainly account for some unease. Nick felt his own stomach churn at the thought. “It can wait until morning, right?” 

There was no way he was going to deny the plea in her voice. He could wait forever to have that conversation, frankly. “You can see how she made the mistake though.” He heard the words fall from his lips before he could think them through, certainly before he could stop them. “C’mon, B,” he added, off her questioning look, “an older man, a younger man and woman with a baby arriving at his place to stay right on the mouth of Christmas? And of the two of us, which is more likely to be a Gibbs offspring?” 

Ellie tilted her head, acknowledging the truth of the statement. Then her lips twitched. “So tell me... do you have any undercover stories to cover this?”

Nick could only laugh at that. “Oh, trust me, this is part of a whole new set of stories I’m working on,” he assured her. He took a chance then, took a step closer to her and looked at her the same way he’d looked at her on a stakeout a few weeks ago, let his hand fall to her arm. This time, though, he wasn’t trying to fool a mark. He’d even given up trying to fool himself. “But I think it’s going to be one of my greatest hits.”

Ellie’s cheeks were flushed pink. It might even have been because of the chill of the December night air. She looked down, then back up at him through her lashes, biting her lip. 

He wanted to kiss her. 

And if he knew anything at all about women, she wanted him to kiss her too. 

But they were on the job. On Gibbs’s street. With a sleeping baby beside them who could wake at any time. 

So he contented himself with a squeeze of her arm, a rueful smile that he saw echoed on her lips. “C’mon,” he said, regret in every syllable, “let’s get back.” 

Nodding, Ellie turned the stroller around, and if he moved closer to her, if their arms were touching as they walked, he’d blame it on the cold. 

Even if he’d never felt so warm.


End file.
